Today's picture - Lucy in the sunshine

 

Grace Kelly - Trying To Figure It Out

I so love this.

Bank of Dave | Official Trailer HD

I'm here with a movie recommendation. It is on Netflix in the US, but I would think it would be on Netflix in England also as it is an English movie, set in Burnley. I read that part of it was filmed there but it was mostly Bradford, Leeds, Wakefield, and London. I began watching knowing absolutely nothing about it. If you like to do that, you can skip the trailer! Anyhow, it is a wonderful movie.

Today's pictures - sunshine

After about nine days of dark, cloudy weather we have sun today. The blog header picture was taken yesterday, and here is the same view today.

 And if you look closely, you may be able to see the smoke coming out of the chimney, against the blue, blue sky.

Book List 2024

January - 5

1. The Murder at the Vicarage - book 1 in the Miss Marple series

by Agatha Christie

mystery 1930

Kindle

2. The Body in the Library - book 2 in the Miss Marple series

by Agatha Christie

mystery 1942

Kindle

3. Hilda and the Troll - book 1 in the Hildafolk series

by Luke Pearson

children's graphic novel 2010

print

library book

4. We Don't Know Ourselves

A Personal History of Modern Ireland

by Fintan O'Toole

nonfiction 2021

print

5. Trouble in Triplicate - book 14 in the Nero Wolfe series

by Rex Stout

mystery 1949

Kindle

February - 2

6. The Second Confession - book 15 in the Nero Wolfe series

by Rex Stout

mystery 1949

Kindle

7. Felsengarten

Our Mountain Garden

by Mrs. Theodore Thomas (Rose Fay)

nonfiction 1904

print

library book

March - 3

8. Three Doors To Death - book 16 in the Nero Wolfe series

by Rex Stout

mystery 1950

Kindle

9. Dead Presidents

 by Brady Carlson

nonfiction 2016

print

10. In The Best of Families - book 17 in the Nero Wolfe series

by Rex Stout

mystery 1950

Kindle

April - 2

11.  Spring Rain - book 3 in the Gardener's Chronicle trilogy

by Marc Hamer

nonfiction 2023

print

12. Curtains For Three - book 18 in the Nero Wolfe series

by Rex Stout

mystery 1950

Kindle

May - 2

13. Asleep 

The Forgotten Epidemic That Remains One Of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries

by Molly Caldwell Crosby

nonfiction 2010

print

14. Murder by the Book - book 19 in the Nero Wolfe series

by Rex Stout

mystery 1951

Kindle

June - 3

15. Mr Rosenblum's List 

Or Friendly Guidance For The Aspiring Englishman

by Natasha Solomons

fiction 2010

print

16. American Bloomsbury

by Susan Cheever

nonfiction 2006

reread

print

17. Triple Jeopardy - book 20 in the Nero Wolfe series

by Rex Stout

mystery 1952

Kindle

July - 4

18. In My Time Of Dying

How I Came Face-To-Face With The Idea Of An Afterlife

by Sebastian Junger

nonfiction 2024

print

library book

19. Corps of Granite

Glimpses of New Hampshire's CCC Camps

by Robert W Averill

and Kris Pastoriza

nonfiction 2024

print

library book

20. Prisoner's Base - book 21 in the Nero Wolfe series

by Rex Stout

mystery 1952

Kindle

21. The Golden Spiders - book 22 in the Nero Wolfe series

by Rex Stout

mystery 1953

Kindle

(Probably some of the July books were in August)

September - 1

22. The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians

by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann

nonfiction 2024

print 

library book

October - 2

23. Three Men Out - book 23 in the Nero Wolfe series

by Rex Stout

mystery 1954

Kindle

24. The Black Mountain - book 24 in the Nero Wolfe series 

by Rex Stout

mystery 1954

Kindle

November

24. Dangerous Davies - book 1 in the Dangerous Davies series

by Leslie Thomas

mystery 1976

Kindle

25. Wonder - book 1 in the Wonder series

by RJ Palacio

children's fiction 2012

print

library book

And a Happy New Year!

 I've always loved John and Yoko's Christmas song, and particularly these lyrics:

"And a happy New Year. Let's hope it's a good one, without any fear."

Why "fear"? Just because it rhymes with year? I don't think so. Artists are geniuses at coming up with just the right words. There is so much fear everywhere. Wars, climate, politics, and more personal fears about one's life.  

We have had some months of fears. Tom had a fall and had to go down to the hospital where Hazel was born ten years ago. They needed to check him out because of concussion and brain bleed (aren't those awful words). This happened on August 30th. He came home on September 1st. While he was there, it was discovered that he has a heart ailment called "a-fib" and then later found out he has high cholesterol. One wouldn't expect a vegetarian of 52 years to have such a thing, but the past few years he has eaten a lot of fat - cheese and butter particularly. Probably this is stress-related from issues dealing with his mother's old age. 

I went online and found out how many grams of saturated fat he should have in a day. It was miles less than he had been eating. He began mindfully living by those grams, and has lost a lot of weight. We won't know for a while if it has done good with the cholesterol numbers. Apparently there are some kinds which are genetic, rather than caused by diet. 

He had a stress test for the a-fib and found that his arteries are not clogged. That is such a relief. He only has to take an aspirin a day to deal with it. The cholesterol medicine comes with warnings for most everything on earth, but I am ignoring them hoping the eating less fat will make a difference. 

He definitely has post-concussion stuff. The problem is that we think he had three before this, but he was never unconscious as he was in August, and we never thought much about them. Now, knowing what we know, there were side effects. He is working hard to rest more, and walk, do qigong, and meditate each day. Slow and steady wins the race, we hope. 

All this is why I have written even less lately than before. The days have been sometimes exhausting. 

I am really going to try to write more in 2024. I have continued to read your blogs, though not often commenting. I want to be a blogger again. 

Quote du jour/Call the Midwife - 2023 Christmas special

 Again, Vanessa Redgrave's voice.

We would give children anything at Christmas, their passing fancies or their heart's desires, their frenzied crazes or the things they yearn for. We want to fill their hands because it fills our hearts. That is the secret of grownups everywhere.

Cher & Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) | Christmas in R...

This is SO great. November 29th THIS year! 60 years ago, Cher sang backup to Darlene Love! 

Movies for the Holidays

 Usually in late November and in all of December, I watch our DVDs of Thanksgiving and Christmas movies. But this has been a different last few months, which I have yet to write about, and I've found myself watching new-to-me holiday movies on Netflix. And they have done me a world of good. So far, I have watched Holiday in the Wild, Christmas on Mistletoe Farm, and A Castle For Christmas. Each one could be described as "schmaltzy" but you know what - they have been just the ticket for me. Escape? Yes, definitely. Enjoyable? Absolutely. Predictable? Well, yes, but still. 

I loved all three of them, in different ways. And I highly recommend them.

PS I just remembered the one I love most of all. Dash and Lily. Absolutely delightful. Bookish, great sights of NYC, and two wonderful characters. The rest of the cast is special, too. Very well-written series.

The Christmas tree

 Margaret, Matthew, and Hazel brought us our tree yesterday. They have done this for the past few years, and we are so grateful. They get it from a local Christmas tree farm.

Last evening I thought how lovely the tree is, unadorned and waiting for the lights and ornaments. 

The Heavy Heavy - Go Down River (Live in Chicago)

Until (if?) I find my writing self again, I’ll post something from a newish band whose work I love. You may read more about them here. I delight in their sound which is reminiscent of older times, but also fresh and new. It is music that makes me feel uplifted and cheery. In the bio they make reference to some bands I love. "Peter Green - era Fleetwood Mac (my favorite period of that band), The Rolling Stones, British Invasion pop acts like The Hollies, and folk-blues Delaney and Bonnie." The last one is a group I was wild about, but they aren’t mentioned much anymore. I even bought Bonnie Bramlett’s album after Delaney died, and one by their daughter Bekka. And there were so many great British Invasion groups that I still listen to and get great joy from.

 

Me and Miss Marple

 I've just ILLed Agatha Christie's The Mirror Crack'd because I began reading a terrific post and saved it for a later time because I wanted to read the book before reading the blog post. 

I was very struck right at the beginning because Miss Marple has been stopped in her tracks because of the ramifications of older age. I checked the publication date, and it is 1962 when Agatha was 72, three years younger than me. She was likely beginning to feel some of those things that seem to happen around 70. 

Miss Marple has been warned off gardening by her doctor who comes by three times a week (think of that!), so she sits and looks out the window. She is resentful of the person she has hired to do the work, because he doesn't do that work. He is busy with his own garden. 

And then she ponders:

One had to face the fact: St. Mary Mead was not the place it had been. You could blame the war (both the wars) or the younger generation, or women going out to work, or the atom bomb, or just the Government - but what one really meant was the simple fact that one was growing old. Miss Marple, who was a very sensible old lady, knew that quite well. It was just that, in a queer way, she felt it more in St. Mary Mead, because it had been her home for so long.

She goes on to note the changes that have come, and the one in particular - a "glittering new supermarket - anathema to the elderly ladies of St. Mary Mead".

"Packets of things one's never even heard of," exclaimed Miss Hartnell. "All those great packets of breakfast cereal instead of cooking a child a proper breakfast of bacon and eggs. And you're expected to take a basket yourself and go round looking for things - it takes a quarter of an hour sometimes to find what one wants - and usually made up in inconvenient sizes, too much or too little. And then a long queue waiting to pay as you go out. Most tiring."

I have always rather prided myself on being "modern" and accepting the world as it is, not the way it was in the "old days". But as I read the above in The Mirror Crack'd, I found it a bit too close for comfort. I have found myself bemoaning a bit about some trends that upset me. I, being a health food hippie from way back, am dismayed by how much candy and junk food children eat now. I have to keep such thoughts inside instead of passing them along to anyone because times do change, and of course, may well change back, but this is the new generation, not mine. The mothers and fathers do a lot of things way better than I did. Kids are busier than mine were. There are more activities available. It all feels too much to me, but I am also not in my thirties or forties. Seventy-five is much slower and quieter than my younger self. And I shall strive to be that "sensible old lady" like Jane Marple.

My thoughts on the Rex Stout books many years ago

 Before blogging, there were email groups online that I belonged to that talked about books. I have kept all my emails to those groups, and just came across the following, written about Champagne For One. The words are just what I would still say, and they were written in May 2006 a few months before I began my blog. The second words are from 2003.

I am so enjoying my visits to Wolfe and Archie as I read them all again in publication order, though as I have said, they really don't have to be read that way. 

I go on and on to anyone who'll listen about the greatness of the Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin books.  Some in the series are stellar, like this one, and others not so perfect, but I don't really look at them individually.  They are all of a piece about the life.  It's like checking in to see what Wolfe and Archie are up to.  I love the old familiar words and descriptions of how many steps up to the door of the old brownstone, what Archie is having for breakfast, how the office is arranged, what Wolfe is reading, and of course the mystery he must work on to pay for his gourmet food and his thousands of orchids.  Wonderful, wonderful books.

 I love the way Archie repeats details in each book, in case the reader is on his
first Nero Wolfe story.  "I climbed the seven steps up to the old
brownstone".  "Cramer sat in the red chair".   I love the house
descriptions.  The plots are really secondary.  Each book is a portion of
the lives of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin.  I think between the Stout
books, and P.G. Wodehouse books, I really could survive without any other
reading material.

Diana Krall - Autumn In New York (Official Video)

The sun went into Libra at 2:50 am today so it is now autumn. And here is Diana Krall singing and playing piano so very beautifully to help celebrate the season. Such a great video, too.

Today's poem by WH Auden

I am currently watching The Last Detective on Britbox. A character called Mod played by the late Sean Hughes quoted the last two lines of this poem. It is the eighth of Auden's Twelve Songs - April 1936. 

At Last the Secret is Outby WYSTAN HUGH AUDEN

At last the secret is out, as it always must come in the end,
The delicious story is ripe to tell to tell to the intimate friend;
Over the tea-cups and in the square the tongue has its desire;
still waters run deep, my dear, there’s never smoke without fire.

Behind the corpse in the reservoir, behind the ghost on the links,
Behind the lady who dances and the man who madly drinks,
Under the look of fatigue the attack of migraine and the sigh
There is always another story, there is more than meets the eye.

For the clear voice suddenly singing, high up in the convent wall,
The scent of the elder bushes, the sporting prints in the hall,
The croquet matches in summer, the handshake, the cough, the kiss,
There is always a wicked secret, a private reason for this.

Come Monday - Jimmy Buffett

We have a radio in the barn, and it is set to an independent radio station in Montpelier, Vermont. There is a daily segment of what is called 33 1/3, when the DJ plays a cut from a record. Because it was Labor Day Weekend, the DJ played Jimmy Buffett's Come Monday. The DJ said it is the best song about traveling and missing your loved ones. It had been a while since I'd heard it, and I was so, so happy. I have been a fan for as long as he has been recording. And I have a delightful, and really unexplainable Jimmy Buffett story. In 1980, we flew to Houston to be Godparents to my childhood friend's baby daughter. We got off the plane, and my friend's husband asked what we would like to do in Houston. The words popped right out of my mouth, "see Jimmy Buffett". He said that there was a show. We got tickets, and saw the most wonderful concert. It was the first show I had been to that sold cocktails, obviously margaritas!

Why on earth would I have said that? Who knows, but it sure was amazing. 

I'm quite sure that the DJ played the song on September 1. And so very sadly, he died that night. 

Quote du jour - Shaun Bythell

 I've just finished Shaun Bythell's second book in his Diary of a Bookseller series, and I loved it so  much! 

Toward the end, the internet was down because of a storm and he started reading a book.

"This is more like the old days, before the tyranny of the Internet, and it was an enormous pleasure to spend the entire day reading, with a few interruptions."

Quote du jour - from Wodehouse to Stout

I have just finished re-reading Some Buried Caesar, book 6 in the Nero Wolfe series by Rex Stout. After it ended there was, on the Kindle version, a 1969 letter from P.G. Wodehouse to Rex Stout upon reading this book for the second time. The letter is actually a copy of the typewritten one. Be still my reader's heart - to think of two of my most favorite writers actually being friends, and respecting one another's work.

"What a good story Buried Caesar is. I had read it before, of course, but had completely forgotten what happened after the adventure with the bull. I find I can re-read Rex Stout indefinitely, which shows the importance of atmosphere."

Atmosphere is what I recall when I think of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. The house, "the old brownstone on West 35th Street", I feel I know as well as my own. When I walk through the door, it is a bit like coming home. And the places visited when Wolfe has to leave, which he abhors doing! I, too, had forgotten all the details in Some Buried Caesar, but the bull in the field was as clear in my mind as could be.

                                                             Rex Stout

 

                                                P.G. Wodehouse

 

Chickens, and ...

 The ... in the blog title means roosters!! Only once in all the years of getting chickens has there been a rooster. I may have mentioned that we gave it away to a fellow, after warning him that he was not kindly toward the kids. He was fine with that, until the rooster went after his daughters. The man shot the rooster. 

The chicken people always warn buyers that they aim for just hens, if that is what the customer orders, but there is always a 10% chance of roosters. 10% of 18 is 1.8, and we have 2! We began to notice maybe a week ago that a couple had red combs. Female Speckled Sussex do not have any red on their heads. Well, this morning, Tom went into the barn early and sure enough a rooster crowed! We are actually quite excited. The Sussex is a mellow breed so fingers crossed the roosters will be as well. 

See those red combs!

The dividing wire between the young Sussex and the older Dominiques will stay up until the little ones are about the same size.

Anniversary Brownies

 

You can see these are not called "anniversary brownies". I call them that because today I made them for Margaret and Matthew for a belated anniversary of the date they got together, and the date they got engaged. I have probably noted over the years that they had known each other practically their whole lives though not in a romantic way. But one evening they re-met at a party, and the rest, so they say, is history. Matt wanted to give her a ring on the date they met, but Margaret had to work so he asked her the next day. 

I made a recipe out of a book I've used before here. I put in softened butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla and no nuts.

The brownies tasted very delicious, but looked quite a mess!

I have a feeling about what the problem is. I've recently been reading about how baking pans aren't all the same sizes. A 7x11 or a 9x13 may not be exactly those dimensions. I have had a few problems since I bought these stainless steel pans after the "glass breaking episode". I need to measure all the ones I have and see about getting new ones if they aren't right.